KL shares end higher midweek

Bursa Malaysia ended higher yesterday after a roller-coaster ride throughout the day as gains in selected heavyweights, particularly oil and gas (O&G) counters, lent support to the market bellwether.

A dealer said the upbeat performance was mainly driven by the stronger crude oil prices.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,766.0, up 2.66 points, or 0.15 per cent, from Tuesday’s close of 1,763.34.

After opening 2.70 points firmer at 1,766.04, the key index moved between 1,760.82 and 1,766.70 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers, however, trounced gainers by 431 to 375, with 395 counters unchanged, 638 untraded and 55 others suspended.

Volume fell to 1.30 billion units worth RM1.55 billion from 1.68 billion units worth RM1.63 billion previously.

Of the O&G heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals added three sen to RM6.99, while Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan rose two sen each to RM18.90 and RM23.86, respectively.

The rise in the shares of Petronas Group’s companies were not affected by news pertaining to the decision by it and its partners not to proceed with the Pacific NorthWest liquefied natural gas project at Port Edward in Canada.

Meanwhile, the dealer said, the upbeat Bursa Malaysia performance was also in tandem with other Asian stock markets.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 2.84 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 3,330.67, Japan’s Nikkei surged 94.96 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 20,050.16 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 88.97 points, or 0.33 per cent, higher at 26,941.02.

Of the actives, UMWOG edged up half-a-sen to 31.5 sen and Kronologi Asia advanced seven sen to 69.5 sen.

GlobalTec was unchanged at 6.5 sen.

Ekovest rose half-a-sen to RM1.13 and IWCity increased by three sen to RM1.36 after China’s Wanda Group was reported to have dropped its bid for Bandar Malaysia project yesterday.

Ajinomoto topped the list of the gainers by bagging 52 sen to RM25.10, while the top loser, BAT, gave up 58 sen to RM44.06.

The FBM Emas Index rose by 18.01 points to 12,567.60, FBM Emas Shariah Index was 14.70 points better at 12,732.26 and the FBMT 100 Index increased by 16.99 points to 12,210.84.

The FBM 70 went up 15.34 points to 14,892.95 and the FBM Ace climbed 17.03 points to 6,591.75.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index surged 57.51 points to 16,752.64 and the Plantation Index advanced 15.03 points to 7,853.49. The Industrial Index was 6.51 points lower at 3,277.11.

The Main Market turnover fell to 887.81 million shares worth RM1.44 billion from 1.06 billion shares worth RM1.52 billion on Tuesday.